Pitfall comes of age - and impressively so

By Martin Kingsley

Where did Pitfall Harry get his name from - was it the falls, perhaps a love of pits? And why not call him Croc-bait Harry...

I like a man who isn't afraid to fall out of planes, be beaten by baboons or drop hundreds of meters into a piranha-infested lake.

In keeping with the above, Pitfall Harry has my undying respect.

Backpack wearing, vine swinging, ruggedly chinned; he is the perfect jungle explorer, bursting forth at the seams with witty one-liners of all shapes and sizes.

However, even if he was deathly afraid of falling out of planes, it wouldn't matter, because he'd have my undying respect simply for being in a game as good as Pitfall: The Lost Expedition.

Take one part Indiana Jones-parody, add salt and two parts awe-inspiring-animation, stir well, douse lightly with purty graphics and season with real time physics before serving and, hey presto, you've got the latest Pitfall game fresh from those bright-eyed, rosy cheeked boys and girls at Activision.

On first slipping the shiny and, I must admit, somewhat banana-flavoured Pitfall DVD into that holiest of holy shrines, the PS2, I was struck by not the graphics, not the sound, not even the gameplay; no, what I was struck by was the lack of an actual intro.

The developers have seen fit to just throw you into the action headfirst and, to make matters stranger, you start off at the very end of the game and then play through from the beginning care of a damned huge flashback sequence.

While I'm sure this must have seemed particularly clever to the bright spark that blocked out the plot, I (as well as most of the gaming public) usually like a little heads-up, just a teensy weensy bit of foreknowledge is all, as to what the Hell it is I'm doing in here with this jaguar (play the game and you'll immediately know what I mean).

Harry ponders a swim in a pirana-infested river, and decides to eat broken glass instead

Thankfully, this impromptu segue into the final stages of the game is brief and, in relatively short order, you can get on with Pitfall proper.

Which is good, because it's one of those games you just want to play, it's atmosphere of fun so strong you've just gotta push and prod and poke every last cubic inch of the thing for the sheer Hell of it all.

The story in short: On a trip to the unexplored reaches of the world alongside the likes of a gone-to-seed British explorer, an inventor more suited to the nuthouse than the laboratory and, last but not least, one very foxy lady, Harry's charted plane crashes into the heart of the jungle.

This leaves you stranded, with no recourse but to slog through many miles of treacherous terrain in search of your companions, hidden treasure, fame, glory and all that other jazz.

Along the way, you'll have to deal with a cowardly talking jaguar, the odd native villager, sleepy shamans, monkeys, the titular pitfalls, a long-lost rival and only Oogajabooga knows what else.

A 3D platformer reminiscent of the Spyro games of yore, The Lost Expedition toes the line between being a puzzle-based brainteaser and an all-out jumpfest, mixing the two sub genres with great success, swinging-vine mazes giving way to lever pulling madness, in turn bowing to baboon-tinted antics.

All of this could be a chore if the controls weren't up to the job, but (joy of joys) the ingeniously simple context-sensitive controls easily flog the competition.

The left analog stick controls movement while the right manipulates any object within reach. For instance, if you want to yank on a lever, you drive the right analog stick at the appropriate angle and watch as Harry's skinny frame heaves it in the chosen direction.

Harry's always been a swinger. He likes using vines for transport too

The various buttons and shoulder-triggers control offensive moves, jumping, camera angles and the many inventive combination attacks up for purchase from the shamans of the area. Simple, no?

Like No One Lives Forever 2 and many games developed before 2000, Pitfall's cleverly designed levels work around the 'hub' theory.

That is, instead of just wandering about on one huge map, the game is split into small or medium-sized areas, which connect to one another either directly or through 'hubs', areas that hold multiple exits.

In this way, system resources normally required to generate large levels can be utilised in other areas, and puzzles can be designed to require back-tracking, generally extending the life of the game.

In a lot of games, backtracking is a bitch, with you having to spend literally hours traipsing across the map in order to get anywhere (Morrowind). In the case of Pitfall, not so. Everything is arranged so that travelling is straightforward and simple, and most puzzles can be solved with only a small amount of out-of-the-way exploration.

Prettiness abounds within Pitfall Harry's gaudily green world, from the endearing cartoon-style modelling to some of the cutest animations seen anywhere in this galaxy or the next (which is Alpha Centauri, for those of you not as well-versed in intergalactic lore as I).

We're not talking retina-burning polygons or Far Cry prettiness; no, what we're talking here, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of prettiness that quietly shuffles in and takes over the scene without you even noticing.

Pull the lever and the stone head will vomit rocks, sand and Backstreet Boys CDs

Pygmies bounce about like over-excited house mice, monkeys hold siestas atop sunbaked rocks or hang lazily from trees, and the pitfalls (giant mouths in the floor complete with big teeth) chomp determinedly at anything that happens to fall within their giant maws, noisily spitting out the remains with Disney-like exaggeration.

Harry himself moves with a comic lankiness, performing some of the most outrageous moves since the advent of Jackie Chan, and with a gawkiness that invariably makes you smile.

Helping to make this Amazonian tour all the tastier is a very nice physics engine.

This lovely engine holds within its binary-composed hand the powers of Inverse Kinematics, water caustics, animation blending, advanced particle effects and a whole troupe of other, less identifiable abilities.

Consider the above combined with a wry script and some subtly over-acted voicework and Pitfall is the kind of gentle satire that gets trivia buffs watering at the mouth. As I type this, I stand in the middle of an ever-expanding ocean of drool, which just proves my point [he's not lying, Butt Nugget slipped and can't get up - Ed].

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, it elates, it frustrates, it makes you chuckle. A fun play filled with varied and inventive gameplay, not to mention pretty graphics and, last but not least, an endearing hero you can't help loving. Top stuff!

Game: Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
System: PS2
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Edge of Reality
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition is on the shelves now.